Guns For Hire
Rick Ely - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards (Formerly in Hoods, Horizon, Legacy.)
John Pepping - Guitar (Formerly in Horizon.)
Steve Kisner - Bass (Formerly in Legacy, Room 212.)
Dave "Hendo" Hendershot - Drums
http://gunsforhirerocks.com/
former members: Jim Wulgaert (Wolgy) - Bass (Formerly in Scare Crow, Trade Winds, Matrix, Wild Heart, Wide Track.)
Dave "Hendo" Hendershot at Mixers June 25th, 2005. Some more pictures from the show:
Some 2005 Shows
May 28th: Pinheads Lounge, Cambridge IL
June 16th: Sturgis On The River, Davenport Iowa 4:30-6pm
June 25th: Mixers 9-1
Booking
gunsforhire.rock@gmail.com
What It's Like To Play In A Cover Band
This article by John Pepping is so good, I'm repeating it word-for-word here.
This week we're going to discuss what it's like to play in a cover band, and what we have to go through. When Rick and i first started Guns For Hire, the first thing we did was start planning our song list. We both agreed that this playlist had to be different than any other bands playlist. We chose songs that meant alot to us, and that had a huge impact on us as musicians. We did not want to do the same old standards as most bands feel they have too like 867-5309/ Jenny, or Keep Your Hands To Yourself, Gimme Three Steps, Cocaine, Mama Let Him Play, well you get the idea.
Rick and I did not know if this was gonna work or not, but we just didn't want to play any songs we've played a hundred times or more in our life. We just wanted to rock, and rock hard. Now i'm not knocking the above songs, or the bands that play these songs, we could've learned all those songs in the time it took us to get down Highway Star with the timing and chord changes, and Rick learning Ritchie Blackmore's great solo in that song. Well after the first half a dozen gigs or so, we realized that we needed to add a few of those songs. People just needed to hear some songs that they knew. Still we were careful in picking the songs. It's not easy finding the right songs. It's kind of learn as you play, as to what goes over, and what doesn't.
Then there's the dance factor. People keep telling you, you've got to play more dance songs. As far as i'm concerned, most rock songs are danceable, if they've got a good steady beat. I went through this back in the 80's too. We learned stuff like Shakin' by Eddie Money, Midnight Rendezvous by the Babys, and so on. But to tell you the truth, we had more people dance to Whole Lotta Rosie by AcDc, and Rock And Roll by Led Zeppelin than we did the more top 40 stuff. That was 20 years ago. Back then we only played 70's and 80's songs. Now your expected to play 70's,80's,90's and new rock. Not to mention a country song or two.
The most important part of selecting songs is to make sure you can make them sound decent. Some of the bars we've played at have a more younger crowd, while others have a more older crowd. Some bars might have a 75% rock crowd, while the other 25% might be country. The best crowd for Guns For Hire is a crowd of twenty to fifty year olds who like to rock. Now a days you almost have to base your playlist on the type of crowd the bar has. This takes playing each place a couple of times to find out what works, that is as long as you get asked back. So ok now you've got your songs picked. The other guys in the band don't have access to a 1,000 cd's like I do. So it's my job to mix and burn the cd's of the songs so the other guys can learn them. Then it never fails that a couple of songs don't work out, then you have to pick a couple more and burn a new cd.
Then there's always the future song cd's to burn also. By the end of the year Guns For Hire will have learned or tried nearly a hundred songs. Now since I have all the cd's, it is also my job to print the lyrics of the songs, since 75% of all cd's have the lyrics inside. Once printed they are stored in a binder for Rick or Jim to learn. So now we've got the songs picked, the lyrics printed, now it's time to set down and learn to play them. The way I'll do it is to learn each song one at a time. I'll take the first one, listen to it completely, then try to play it. Once I know it for sure, I'll usually play it about ten times in a row. Then I'll move on to the next one. Once I have the songs i needed to learn down, next I'll go back and learn the leads that i have to play. This is probably the toughest part. Rick and I both try to play each solo as close to the original as possible. If the song has a real easy solo, sometimes we'll make up our own. Some songs that don't have a solo, we'll add our own.
Now it's time to learn the songs as a band. Due to work constraints, Guns only rehearses on weekends. Usually four hours each Saturday, and four to five hours each Sunday. Next we have to go out and visit the clubs and try and get some dates lined up. There's also a lot of little things we do each week. We self promote ourselves,(contacting the papers about gigs, printing up flyers, finding ways to promote the web site), all this adds up too. Even writing this Rock Beat thing usually takes me a couple of hours. I never plan on what to write, I just sit down and start writing whatever comes to mind. As you can now see, we spend a lot of time on this band life, this on top of working at our jobs 40 hours a week, spending time with our families and friends, and everything else normal people do. It can all be quite exhausting. Then why do we do it ? Because we love it, that's why. Music is the greatest form of entertainment. It's a little harder now that were in our forty's as compared to the way it was in our twenty's. Our memories are not as sharp, our timing can be off at times, not to mention all the aches and pains of getting older. I think I can speak for the rest of the guys that we are having more fun now than we ever have.
We may not be the tightest band, or the best sounding band around, but it would be hard to find a more rocking band our age, in this area. We may no longer have dreams of being Rock Stars as we did in our twenty's, but we'll rock twice as hard. You come to see Guns For Hire you'll see four guys rocking their asses off, and having the time of their lives. Hopefully the audience will too.
Stop by Mixers on June 25th at nine p.m. and you'll see what I mean.
Partial Song List
- .45 - Shinedown
- All She Wrote - Firehouse
- Already Gone - Eagles
- Bang Go The Bells - Babylon A.D.
- Basket Case - Greenday
- Bringin' On The Heartache - Def Leppard
- Can't Get Enough - Bad Company
- Chip Away The Stone - Aerosmith
- Cold Hard Bitch - Jet
- Deny - Default
- Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC/DC
- Don't Tell Me You Love Me - Night Ranger
- Fool For Your Lovin - Whitesnake
- Got No Shame - Brother Cane
- Headless Cross - Black Sabbath
- Heaven - Warrant
- Highway Star - Deep Purple
- I Like To Rock - April Wine
- Just Between You And Me - April Wine
- Keep Pushin' - REO Speedwagon
- Lay It On The Line - Triumph
- Lights Out - U.F.O.
- Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
- Love Ain't No Stranger - Whitesnake
- Love Of A Lifetime - Firehouse
- Meet Me On The Mountain - REO Speedwagon
- Never Again - Nickelback
- Rock-A-Ho - Jackyl
- Rockin' In The Free World - Neil Young
- Roll With The Changes - REO Speedwagon
- Screaming In The Night - Krokus
- Starrider - Foreigner
- Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns And Roses
- Time For Me To Fly - REO Speedwagon
- Wanted Dead Or Alive - Bon Jovi
- Were An American Band - Jackyl
- When I'm Gone - 3 Doors Down